The Director of Communications of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Richard Ahiagbah, has said that the Scholarship Secretariat should be encouraged to provide the names of National Democratic Congress (NDC) associates and functionaries or dependents who benefited from government scholarships for public education.
He said this after accusing the Fourth Estate, which carried out the investigations at the secretariat, of engaging in selectivity.
He however noted that the solution to the challenges at the secretariat rests in reforming the system to stipulate clear rules and standards to regulate access to the facility.
He was commenting on a recent publication by the Fourth Estate dubbed ‘Scholarship Bonanza’ alleging, among other things, that scholarships are being unfairly distributed to well-connected affluent individuals.
The Fourth Estate in its latest publication christened ‘Scholarship Bonanza’ has named persons close to key government officials as beneficiaries of scholarships that it deems inappropriate. But the Registrar maintains the secretariat did nothing wrong.
In a post on his X platform, Mr Ahiagbah said ” The outrage following the Fourth Estate Report on some scholarship awards by the Scholarship Secretariat is understandable, but we must note the following: The Scholarship Secretariat provided the Fourth Estate with 64,411 scholarship beneficiaries between 2019 and 2020. However, they chose to report on about 20 beneficiaries to create the false impression that all scholarship beneficiaries are people associated with the NPP or government. So, what about the other beneficiaries? Are they all associated with the government or NPP?
“Between 2012 and 2016, the NDC was in power, and H.E. Mahama was Vice President and President. A total of 30,399 scholarships were issued; why didn’t the Fourth Estate request and examine that data set because NDC associates and functionaries or dependents benefited from state scholarships? Perhaps the Scholarship Secretariat should be encouraged to provide the names of NDC associates and functionaries or dependents who benefited from government scholarships for public education since the Fourth Estate has decided to be selective. But that will not solve the problem. The solution rests in reforming the system to stipulate clear rules and standards to regulate access to the facility.
“The Scholarship Secretariat has done commendable work since 2017 by decentralizing the application procedure to the districts that an independent committee manages. The district committees include the MP, representatives of the traditional authority, the DCE or MCE, the District Education rep, and the Scholarship Secretariat staff. Much work has been done to improve administration and access to scholarships; now, our conversation’s focus should be on further reforms in the application process to exclude some category of persons because the current regime does not expressly exclude anybody from applying for or benefiting from scholarships.
“We must commend the Fourth Estate and ask that it continue to work towards informing Ghanaians devoid of political. Let’s vote for Bawumia to continue reforming and expanding the scholarship scheme to enhance the global competitiveness of our youth. With Bawumia as President, it is possible.”
Meanwhile, the Registrar of the Scholarship Secretariat, Dr Kingsley Agyemang, has called for a law to be passed to streamline the distribution of scholarships in the country.
This in his view will address the misconceptions about the scheme.
He highlights the current challenge faced by officers in making decisions due to the absence of clear legislation defining who qualifies as a needy individual for a scholarship.
According to him, even though the acquisition of scholarships under his watch has been decentralized and digitized to minimize centralized discretion and to enhance the openness of the process, many still hold misconceptions about how scholarships are issued.
Dr Agyemang’s stance comes in response to a recent publication by the Fourth Estate dubbed ‘Scholarship Bonanza’ alleging, among other things, that scholarships are being unfairly distributed to well-connected affluent individuals.
However, in an interview with Joy News, Dr Agyemang emphasizes the necessity of legislation to dispel any misconceptions about eligibility criteria.
“Sorry to say that there is no establishment Act for the Scholarship Secretariat. It’s been an issue that needs public discussions. There’s no enabling Act. So looking into the future, I think we need a scholarship Act.”
According to him, the claims that middle-income earners are unjustly benefiting from the scholarships and that such persons do not need to benefit from them are untenable, as many of the so-called middle-income earners in Ghana are largely civil servants whose incomes are nothing to write home about.
“In Ghana, those we usually refer to as middle-income earners are public sector workers. Or those that we are defining as middle-income earners, are they really middle-income earners in tandem with best practices or best economic conditions?”
He added that “Civil servants are largely paid between a 100 dollars or maybe 300 dollars, and you call that one a middle-income earner? So of course, every Ghanaian qualifies except the high earners. Who is a needy person? How do you guys assess who a needy person is?”
He believes that a scholarship legislation, if introduced, will set out comprehensive parameters for how funds ought to be administered and who deserves to benefit, adding that such a law must be crafted in line with the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) in tandem with the country’s priorities.
“So looking into the future, I think a scholarship legislation is so eminent and that will set out everything that we need to do and how the funds need to be managed. It’s been managed over the years by the dexterity of leaders; what they think is so important. This can be done in conjunction with maybe the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) to identify priority areas that as Ghanaians we need to focus on.”
